Mark Patinkin: Don’t forget to call your parents it’s the law in China

It turns out you can get in legal trouble if you don’t call your mother. Or father.In China, anyway.They just strengthened a law there saying adult children are required to visit or look after elderly...

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Posted Jul. 8, 2013 @ 3:12 pm

It turns out you can get in legal trouble if you don’t call your mother. Or father.

In China, anyway.

They just strengthened a law there saying adult children are required to visit or look after elderly parents.

It got me worrying they could pass the same law here, so I dialed my folks.

My dad picked up, which was unusual. He’s 87 and loves to do two things — kid around, and not answer the phone.

“It’s your favorite son,” I said.

“Douglas? Matthew? Nicholas?”

“It’s Mark, Dad.”

“So good to hear from you, my boy. Are you calling for your mother? A wonderful woman. She’ll be back soon.”

“Then let’s you and me talk.”

“I was afraid of that,” my dad said. “To what do I owe the honor?”

I explained about the Chinese law, and said I wanted to make sure he felt well taken care of by his children.

“I do, indeed. By you and my 16 grandchildren. I feel blessed to have you all in my life. Especially if you don’t call me too often. What is it I can tell you, my boy?”

“Just assure me I’ve done my job as a son.”

“You did for a fact. You were the one who could hit the long ball. You should have stayed with baseball. You could have been somebody. But more important, I have a question.”